1980s Franchise Wins Leaders
From Jack Morris to Len Barker, here are the wins leaders for every major league team in the 1980s.
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National League
1980s Franchise Hits Leaders
From Robin Yount to Chili Davis, here are the hits leaders for every major league team in the 1980s.
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1980s Franchise Home Run Leaders
From Mike Schmidt to Carmelo Martinez, here is the home run leader for every major league team in the 1980s.
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1980s 3,000 Hit Club
Nearly half of the players in MLB history to reach 3,000 hits played in the 1980s. Here is the list of those with ’80s ties.
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Reds Managers of the 1980s
A breakdown of the men who managed the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980s
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Phillies Managers of the 1980s
A breakdown of the men who managed the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1980s
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Two Dingers in an Inning
The 1980s saw four players hit two home runs in one inning.
Here is who turned the trick.
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Dick Perez and the Birth of Diamond Kings
The story behind the iconic Donruss baseball cards
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1980s First Round Ratings
I took a look at every team’s first-round picks over the course of the decade and rated the best and worst.
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The Day the World Series Stopped
Jon Leonoudakis was in attendance at Game Three of the 1989 World Series with a VHS camcorder and his still camera. He recently released a film on his experience and gives us a preview.
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Fernando Holds Out
Suds Series, is scheduled to be released on March 31st. The following is an excerpt from the book detailing Fernando Valenzuela’s holdout in the spring of 1982.
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Tom Seaver by the Numbers
Thirteen men threw more than 4,000 innings and finished their careers with an E.R.A. of under 3.00.
Tom Seaver is the only one who threw a pitch after 1930.
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ALL CAPS
Craig Colby documents his love of sports in his book, ALL CAPS: Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection
Tony Gwynn Facts
Tony Gwynn was one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game. Here are some facts to prove it.
An Open Letter to Reds Fans
After a rough start to the 1982 season, Reds second baseman wrote an open letter to fans of the team
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December 31st
Happy Birthday to Joe Simpson and the Cardinals re-sign One Tough Dominican on December 31st in 1980s Baseball
November 24th
Happy Birthday to Steve Yeager, Cal brings home some hardware, and its is the end of the road for The Big Bopper on November 24th in 1980s Baseball.
October 14th
Happy Birthday to Al Oliver, He Don’t Want to Walk You, and Billy Martin is headed to Cleveland on October 14th in 1980s Baseball.
October 13th
Happy Birthday to Frank LaCorte, the Tigers take a commanding World Series lead, and an unfortunate incident for Vince Coleman highlight October 13th in 1980s Baseball.
October 12th
Happy Birthday to Sid Fernandez, the Phillies head to the World Series for the first time in 30 years, and Orel Hershiser continues his dominance on October 12th in 1980s Baseball.
October 11th
Happy Birthday to Gregg Olson, the Expos win their first playoff series, and the loss of a Hall of Famer highlight October 11th in 1980s Baseball.
October 10th
Happy Birthday to Gene Tenace, a nice day if you’re named Vu(c)kovich, and Tommy Lasorda has trouble with the law on October 10th in 1980s Baseball
October 9th
Happy Birthday to a guy who got cut in high school, Boston brings Yaz back, and the Giants are head to the World Series for the first time since 1962 on October 9th in 1980s Baseball.
October 8th
Happy Birthday to Enos Cabell, the Braves make a change, and the 1983 World Series matchup is set on October 8th in 1980s Baseball
October 7th
Happy ’80s Birthday to Rudy Law, a big day for Rickey Henderson, and the Padres are going to the World Series on October 7th in 1980s Baseball.
October 6th
Happy Birthday to Oil Can Boyd, the Astros win a tiebreaker, and Wade Bogs wins a batting title on October 6th in 1980s Baseball.
October 5th
Happy Birthday to Onix Concepcion, George Brett caps an amazing season, and David Cone steps in it on October 5th in 1980s Baseball
October 4th
Happy Birthday to The Duke, Schmitty hits a huge dinger, and Greg Gagne pulls off a rarity on October 4th in 1980s Baseball
A Cobra Conversation
Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood is available now and I sat down with co-author Dave Jordan to discuss the book. Tell me how this project came together. Why Dave Parker as opposed to another player? Well, about a year after the release of “Fastball John,” the Johnny D’Acquisto autobiography, we had just gotten home from
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January 7th
Happy Birthday to Jeff Montgomery, Lou Brock gets the Hall Call and we lost Tommy on January 7th in 1980s Baseball.
16 Ridiculous Nolan Ryan Statistics
How can a man who struck out nearly 900 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be overrated? When his name is Nolan Ryan. How can a man who walked nearly 1,000 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be underrated? When his name is Nolan Ryan.
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The Kid from Left Field
Note: Former Padres employee Andy Strasberg posted this story in a Facebook group I’m in. I reached out to him to ask if I could reprint it and he agreed. It’s a great story! The original movie version of “The Kid From Left Field” was made in 1953 and starred Dan Dailey and Anne
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When Reggie Flirted with Ted Turner
“Reggie Jackson is the ”straw that stirs the drink” on the Yankees now. Unless a serious problem develops in the negotiations of Jackson’s new contract and Reggie feels that George Steinbrenner has adopted Dave Winfield and abandoned him.” -Dave Anderson, New York Times, 12/16/80 When the Yankees signed Dave Winfield, his new teammate Reggie Jackson had a piece
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Why June 8th, 1980 was the most important day of the 1982 World Series
Nearly every World Series has a turning point; a moment that shifts the balance in favor of one team or another. Be it Dickie Noles flipping George Brett in 1980, Kirk Gibson’s homer off Dennis Eckersley in 1988 or Kirk Gibson’s other homer off Goose Gossage in 1984, there is often one moment that defines
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Ballpark Ghosts: Riverfront Stadium
“It’s Here! It’s Real! It’s Grand! -Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/1/70 on the opening of Riverfront Stadium Thirty-two years later, Riverfront Stadium was an eyesore; A reminder of the “cookie cutter” multi-purpose stadium trend of the 1970s. But in between being “Grand” and being “oft-mailgned,” as the Enquirer called it the day after it closed for good
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A Conversation with the man behind Gummy Arts
Baseball Twitter is better because Mike Noren is part of it. Noren is the brains, and the pencils, behind Gummy Arts, a Twitter account and related website that showcases hand-drawn baseball cards and lots of nostalgia. The process began in 2015 when his girlfriend bought him a “doodle a day” calendar and he began doing
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The decade begins
The first Opening Day of the new decade brought baseball fans a brand new statistic and the season highlight in an otherwise horrible season for one pitcher. Here’s how things went down on April 9th, 1980. Reds 9, Braves 0 Filling in for an ill Tom Seaver, Frank Pastore draws the Opening Day start for
7 Amazing Rickey Henderson Stolen Base Facts
Rickey Henderson was the best leadoff hitter in the history of the game and also one of the most exciting. Here are seven things Rickey did that will likely never be done again. 1: From 1970 through 1989, Rickey stole 283 more bases than anyone in baseball. He didn’t make his debut until 1979. Despite
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The Trade
Ryne Sandberg was expendable in January of 1982. With the benefit of hindsight, the Phillies trade of Sandberg and Larry Bowa to the Cubs for Ivan DeJesus was awful. But a deep dive into what was going on with the Phillies at the time provides a fascinating look at a team desperately trying to hold
The Best of 2017 on ’80s Baseball
I started this blog at the beginning of 2016 as a companion to a book I was writing. I’m happy to say the book is finished and should be out at some point in the summer of 2018. I didn’t post on the blog nearly as much as I wanted to this year because I was
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The Quest for Razor Shines
Note: This is a guest post from Nate Dunlevy My best friend and I just spent dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars to recreate a AAA baseball jersey from 1986 for a player with 81 career major-league at bats. Context may be required. Late 80s Indianapolis was a haven for boys who loved minor-league
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A Conversation with John Giancaspro
It started with Ivan DeJesus. John Giancaspro opened a pack of 1982 Donruss baseball cards, pulled an Ivan DeJesus Diamond King card, and a life-long love of sports art was born. “I was only 12 at the time,” said Giancaspro, “and I thought a painted card was the coolest thing ever. I knew I wanted to do
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Dodgers Astros Showdown
“For you guys who don’t think we can win four in a row, do us a favor. Don’t get dressed.” So read the sign in the Dodgers clubhouse on Friday, October 3rd. L.A trailed the Astros by three games with three remaining in the season. Anything less than a four-game sweep would end their year.
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Larry Bowa: Pride of Philadelphia and Sacramento
NOTE: This is a guest post from Marshall Garvey It’s become something of a cliche to praise a modern player who shows any semblance of hustle as a “throwback”. Should one employ the term, though, Larry Bowa is the ideal litmus. In a year that’s seeing home runs fly at a historic rate (juiced ball
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A Discussion with Sean Kane
Your average fan uses a baseball glove to, you know, catch baseballs. Sean Kane uses them to create amazing pieces of art. For more than fifteen years, Sean Kane has been creating one-of-a-kind painted glove pieces that have earned him national recognition and a sizable following which includes many of the players he features. It all
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A Discussion with Tim Carroll
Growing up, we learned to take care of our baseball cards because they would be valuable some day. We may even be able to sell them to pay for our kids’ college! Tim Carroll ignored that advice and the result is something wonderful. Carroll cuts up baseball cards and turns them into unique works of art, which
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(Mark) Clear as Mud
Not many guys can go from getting seriously knocked around in the Appy League to becoming a Major League All-Star in less than five years, but that’s exactly what Mark Clear did. Clear was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 8th round in 1974 and spent his first professional summer with the Pulaski Phillies
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Wild One at the Vet
Sometimes mistakes can work in your favor. That was certainly the case for Tommy Lasorda and the L.A. Dodgers when they took on the Phillies at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on May 4th, 1980. Prior to the game, Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton took the lineup care to home plate and handed it to umpire Paul Pryor.
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Barry Foote Day at Wrigley Field
Weird things happen at Wrigley Field. It’s baseball’s version of a box of chocolate; you never know what you’ll find. Tub slides in urinals, goats being denied admission, Barry Foote driving in eight; it’s a bizarre place. On April 22nd, 1980 the bizarre occurrences began with the weather. Ask anyone who has attended April games
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The Ultimate Tim Wallach Collector
Tim Wallach had 8,099 career at-bats. Corey Stackhouse has 19,000 Tim Wallach baseball cards and he’s probably headed to the mailbox right now to pick up some more. Stackhouse is the ultimate Tim Wallach fan and no one else is even close. His quest: To own every Tim Wallach baseball card ever made. Not one
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On Dallas Green
“Dallas Green… was tall, blunt, and had a voice like a foghorn.” -Bill Giles Midway through the 1979 season, it became clear that Danny Ozark had lost control of the Philadelphia Phillies and a change was needed. At one point during the season, Ozark confided in Phillies team president Bill Giles, “I can’t control these
All-’80s Baseball Hoops Team
It’s NCAA Basketball tournament time and that can mean only one thing: Baseball! Not only were the ‘80s a great decade for baseball, you could make a pretty solid hoops team from guys who played baseball in the 1980s. Here’s our team: Point Guard: Tony Gwynn Not only was Tony Gwynn one of the top
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Dream Season: Mike Schmidt
Every player longs for that dream season. The one where they stay healthy and just produce. I’m going to crunch the numbers and create dream seasons for notable 1980s stars. We’ll start with Mike Schmidt. April 1986 Schmitty had some slow starts, but his final season was not among them. He went 2-4 with a
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Best Baseball Weekend EVER
It was January of 1995 and Mike Schmidt had just been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I distinctly remember coming home that day and my girlfriend, now wife, could sense I was a bit down. She asked me what was wrong and I told her I had always told myself I would go
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The Best of 2016 on ’80s Baseball
I started this blog 364 days ago. Since then, I’ve published 64 posts, including guest posts, for which I’m very grateful. It’s been a great year and I thought I’d take a look back at the Top 5 posts of 2016 based (unscientifically) on page views. Number 5: George Brett’s amazing 1980 Brett was absolutely ridiculous
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Baseball Nivrana
I’ve been a collector for my entire life. You never know when you may need a 37-year-old pocket schedule and I don’t want to be unprepared. So I packed up my sons and headed to Chicago for the Fanatics Authentic Sports Spectacular. One of the big draws of shows like this is the autograph pavilion. There
Joe Morgan’s Mysterious Dodgers Connection
Joe Morgan made a career out of beating the Los Angeles Dodgers. The damage varied from beating L.A. in the regular season to knocking them out of the playoffs. Over a nine year span, Morgan’s teams ended the Dodgers season five times, including two defeats on final day of the season. But one thing many don’t know
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Game Six
You never forget your first time. For me it was October 21st, 1980; the night I had my first championship experience. I was a few months into 8th grade at a small school in Oxford, OH. By small, I mean really small. My graduating class had about 25 people. I was a little anxious about
7 Reasons The 1980 Pennant Race Was Fantastic
Four teams, two spots, one weekend. That’s what the 1980 pennant race came down to in the National League. The American League race produced some drama, but the NL pennant race was outstanding and it doesn’t get its due. It had everything, including two divisions that came down to the final weekend. Here are seven
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Baseball Returns to Buffalo with Real Power
Note: This is a guest post from Greg Lucas After nearly an eight year hiatus, professional baseball returned to Buffalo in 1979. The previous franchise in the AAA International League ran into heavy financial problems and even had to play some home games at nearby Niagara Falls towards the end. But the Buffalo Bisons had
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Reflections on Riverfront Stadium
I didn’t grow up going to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. I cut my teeth as a baseball fan at the concrete monolith known as Riverfront Stadium. I attended my first big league game there in 1975 when the Reds hosted the Astros. Over the years there were lots of memories, some shenanigans and a
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That Time I Met Johnny Bench (Twice)
If you were a kid in southwestern Ohio in the 1970s and you could eat anywhere you wanted, the answer was clear: Johnny Bench’s Home Plate. Bench owned two restaurants in the Cincinnati area at the time and one of them was near the Northgate Mall, which was about 40 minutes from my house. I
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Missed it by that much: The Karl Pagel story
If there was a Futures Game in 1980 he would have been a headliner. Karl Pagel was a can’t miss star. He was a high draft pick of the Chicago Cubs in 1976 and absolutely tore up the minor leagues. He hit .344 in AA in 1977 with 28 homers and 104 RBI and was
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That Time I Met Nolan Ryan
Note: This is a guest post from Scott Ottenweller In the late ’70s my family moved from New York to Columbus, Ohio. The Yankees had finally returned to prominence, winning the World Series in ‘77 and ‘78, I naturally became a Yankee fan. And I still am to this day. I was still relatively young
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The 1980 All-Star Game
There have been 87 All-Star games in major league history. Exactly one of them took place at Dodger Stadium. Watching the game today on YouTube brings you right back to the era, complete with Keith Jackson, Don Drysdale and Howard Cosell in the booth. Love him or hate him, there’s nothing quite like listening to
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That Time I Met Eric Davis
Note: This is a guest post from Nate Dunlevy My love affair with baseball began with the same cliches that every child of the ’80s retells. I don’t know if it was staying up late to watch Bill Buckner make the same error I made a thousand times, or if it was the wood paneling
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The weirdest day of the 1980 season
“Is it a full moon or somethin’?” That’s what my mother-in-law says when weird stuff happens. June 20th, 1980 must have featured multiple full moons because some bizarre crap went down. On the field, it began in Boston when the Red Sox hosted the California Angels. The Angels were decimated by injuries but the lineup
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Schmidt, Carlton and the 1980 Phillies
The poster hung on the wall of my bedroom in southwest Ohio for years. MVP and CY. Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. My guys. I was far from unique in worshiping the two future Hall-of-Famers, but to this day the site of this poster still makes me smile. The Phillies were considered underachievers entering
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Schmidt & Brett in 1971
The most important day of the 1980 baseball season may very well have taken place in June of 1971. June 8th was draft day. The Chicago White Sox held the #1 pick and chose a high school catcher named Danny Goodwin from Peoria Central High School. Goodwin was the consensus #1 choice, a 6′-2″ 195
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It’s Strawberry Season
The Pittsburgh Pirates sent a scout to look at him. He left after a few minutes. Not because he wasn’t impressed, but because he knew his there was no chance the kid would still be available when the Pirates pick rolled around. A Phillies scout called him, “the best prospect I’ve seen in 30 years.” “I’d
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Bad Blood at The Vet
“Green’s Phillies Win Brawl Game” read one headline. “Phillies Wrestle First Place Away From Bucs” read another. On May 26th, 1980, the Pittsburgh Pirates came to Veterans Stadium for an NL East showdown. Philadelphia had won four straight to cut Pittsburgh’s lead in the division to just a half game and the four-game series was
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Moonlighting – Starring Ozzie Smith
Before there was Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd there was Ozzie Smith. While there may be no truth to the rumor that the hit TV show was based on the exploits of the future Hall-of-Fame shortstop, it is indeed a fact that in the summer of 1980, Ozzie Smith was looking for a second gig.
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McCovey’s Last Bomb
Sometimes you witness history and don’t even know it. That was the case for the 18,622 people in attendance for the Giants/Expos game in Montreal on May 3rd, 1980. At the time, Willie McCovey was in the twilight of what would become a Hall of Fame career. McCovey was born on January 10th, 1938 in Mobile
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Horner vs. Turner
Bob Horner almost never played for the Atlanta Braves and it would have been Ted Turner’s fault. Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and immediately began upsetting the baseball establishment. Early in his tenure, Turner ran afoul of MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn over player tampering charges involving Giants outfielder Gary Matthews. Kuhn summoned the
The Birth of the Game Winning RBI
It seemed like a good idea at the time. At the beginning of 1980, Major League Baseball implemented Rule 1004-a, which established a new batting statistic called Game Winning RBI. A batter would receive credit for a GWRBI if they recorded ”the r.b.i. that gives a club the lead it never relinquishes.” Introduced during the
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“The Kid” signed for me
I SUCKED at baseball when I was a kid. I was among the t-ball elite of Oxford, Ohio back in 1977. But once the ball started moving, I began to experience tremendous difficulty at the plate. At the time, there was still room for all-glove, no-hit infielders in the big leagues, but being an all-glove, no-hit
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Bert Blyleven Bolts from the Bucs
The complete game is an anachronism in baseball today. But in 1980 it was an important part of the game and a source of pride for the pitchers who threw them. As the Pittsburgh Pirates began defense of their 1979 World Series championship, manager Chuck Tanner indicated he wanted to see more complete games out
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Joe Morgan and J.R. Richard’s (not so ) Secret Mission
On April 1st, 1980, members of the Major League Baseball Players Association voted to walk out of the final week of spring training. The move was a warning shot intended to get the attention of the team owners who were longing for the good old days before free agency. Some teams stayed at their spring
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Desperado: The Jerry Terrell Story
967-1. That was the vote. On April 1st, 1980, players across the major leagues voted on whether or not to strike that season. Of the 968 votes cast, there was but one dissenter. As spring training wound down, one issue loomed above all others: The threat of a players’ strike. Ever since Peter Seitz’s ruling
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My Top 3 Larry Bowa Moments
I was an outsider. A malcontent. I grew up as a Phillies Phan in Reds Country in the 1970s. Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton were my guys, but I also had an obsession with shortstop Larry Bowa. He was small and feisty and played great defense. In T-Ball, I played shortstop and wore his uniform number
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The greatness of J.R. Richard
In December of 1979, the Houston Astros made Nolan Ryan the first million-dollar man history. Ryan won 324 games, threw 7 no-hitters and would lead his league in strikeouts eleven times en route to amassing more strikeouts than any other pitcher who ever played. But in 1980 he wasn’t even the best pitcher on his
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The Courtship of Nolan Ryan
The Houston Astros had one of the best pitching staffs in the National League in 1979, finishing second in the league with a 3.20 team E.R.A. Joe Niekro won 21 games, Ken Forsch threw the major league’s only no-hitter and 6 foot 8 fireballer James Rodney Richard led league in strikeouts. But new owner John
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Down Goes Lasorda!
On February 17th, 1980 two separate interviews at a local television station turned into an impromptu Los Angeles Dodgers fight night. Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda, was at KNBC recording an interview when he bumped into Jim Lefebvre. Bad blood existed between the two after Lasorda had fired Lefebvre as hitting and first base
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Joe Morgan Comes Home
After eight seasons in Cincinnati, second-baseman Joe Morgan was looking to prove he could still contribute as he entered his age 36 season. He won back-to-back MVP awards and two World Series with the Reds in 1975 & ‘76 but his offensive numbers fell sharply after that. He hit just .236 in 1978 and .250
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The Mysterious Case of Dallas Green
All young baseball fans dream of hitting a walkoff home run to win the World Series like Bill Mazeroski or Joe Carter. It’s a great way to ensure your spot in history. If you played in the major leagues from 1960 through 1967 there was another thing you could do to give yourself a shot
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The 80’s are my 50’s
I grew up reading Angell, Halberstam, Kahn and others wax nostalgic about baseball in the 1950’s. The pictures they painted of sun-drenched afternoons at Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds made the era come to life. I’m sure it was a magical time with great baseball. They can have it. This isn’t an indictment of
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